USO Gets an October 7 Options Expiration at 146.99

New options contracts on the United States Oil Fund (USO) began trading for the October 7, 2026 expiration, with the fund quoted at 146.99, down 0.79% on the day as of 15:14 GMT on September 22, 2026.

Options traders working the crude complex got a new date on the board this week. Contracts covering the October 7, 2026 expiration began trading on the United States Oil Fund (USO), adding a short-dated rung to a ladder that already stretches out months. The fund itself was quoted at 146.99 as of 15:14 GMT on September 22, 2026, down 0.79% on the session from a prior close of 148.16, with an intraday range of 145.07 to 147.66.

The arrival of a new expiration is routine plumbing, but it is not trivial. Each new series gives hedgers and income sellers a fresh set of strikes to work against, and short-dated series in particular have become the busiest corner of the listed options market. From the September 22 session to the October 7 expiration is 15 calendar days — roughly two weeks of time value, which is a very different instrument from the quarterly contracts most retail investors are familiar with.

Why a two-week expiration behaves differently

An option's price is made of two parts: intrinsic value, which is how far in the money the strike already sits, and time value, which is what a buyer pays for the possibility that the underlying moves before expiry. Time value decays, and it decays fastest in the final weeks. That asymmetry is the whole reason weekly and short-dated series exist.

For a seller, a 15-day contract means the premium is collected and resolved quickly, freeing the collateral to be redeployed. For a buyer, it means a cheaper ticket but far less room for the thesis to work. In a fund tracking oil futures — an asset that can gap on a headline out of the Gulf overnight — that trade-off is sharper than it is in a broad equity index tracker.

That is the context in which Stock Options Channel's YieldBoost screen, cited by Nasdaq Markets, combed the new USO chain for the October 7 series and flagged contracts of interest on both sides. The formula's basic logic is to express an option premium as a yield against the strike price — what a cash-secured put seller effectively earns on the capital set aside, or what a covered call writer adds on top of a holding — and then compare that across strikes.

What the underlying is actually doing

USO tracks crude through futures contracts rather than by holding barrels, which means its price path reflects both the direction of oil and the shape of the futures curve. Options written on it inherit that behavior.

On the day the new series opened, the fund was soft. At 146.99 it sat below its prior close of 148.16, and the 145.07 to 147.66 intraday band works out to a spread of about 1.75% of the prior close — an illustrative measure of how much ground the fund covered inside a single session. That kind of daily churn is what feeds option premiums: implied volatility, the market's forward estimate of movement, is the single largest lever on what a two-week contract is worth.

The move came against a mixed tape. The S&P 500 tracker (SPY) was effectively flat at $773.30, off 0.03%. The Nasdaq 100 tracker (QQQ) was firmer at $744.64, up 0.43%. The Dow tracker (DIA) was the laggard at $517.30, down 0.48%. Crude exposure, in other words, was not moving with the broad equity market on the day — which is precisely the diversification argument that draws some investors to the fund and the hedging argument that draws others to its puts.

How the two sides of the chain get used

Put selling and call selling against USO serve different constituencies, and it is worth separating them.

• Cash-secured puts. An investor willing to own the fund at a lower price sets aside the cash, sells a put below the market, and keeps the premium if the fund stays above the strike. If oil falls through it, they buy in at the strike, with the premium reducing the effective cost. The risk is a sustained crude decline that leaves the position under water well past expiry.
• Covered calls. A holder sells an upside strike and collects premium in exchange for capping gains above it. In a commodity fund, that cap is the live risk: geopolitical supply shocks are exactly the events that produce the sort of one-week move that a covered call writer surrenders.
• Protective puts. Energy-heavy portfolios sometimes buy USO puts as a short-dated hedge against a demand shock. A two-week contract is cheap in dollar terms and expensive in decay terms, so it suits a defined event window rather than a standing insurance policy.

None of these are free money. The YieldBoost style of screen expresses premium as an annualized yield figure, and annualizing a 15-day premium implicitly assumes the trade can be repeated on similar terms roughly twenty-four times a year. In practice, implied volatility is highest exactly when the underlying is most dangerous, so the periods that produce the fattest headline yields are often the periods with the widest range of outcomes.

What to watch into the October 7 expiry

Three things will determine whether the new series ends up quiet or busy.

First, crude direction. USO's price is the input to every strike decision on the chain; a move of the size implied by the day's 145.07 to 147.66 range, repeated a few times, is enough to sweep through several strikes in two weeks.

Second, implied volatility. If the market's expectation of movement rises, existing short option positions lose value even when the fund does not move, and new sellers are paid more to step in. If it compresses, premium sellers see their yields shrink and buyers get cheaper hedges.

Third, open interest. A new expiration starts empty. Whether it accumulates meaningful open interest — the count of contracts outstanding — in the first days tells you whether institutions are using it or whether the liquidity stays concentrated in the standard monthly series. Thin open interest means wider bid-ask spreads, and wider spreads quietly eat the yields that screens advertise.

For most investors, the practical takeaway is narrower than the headlines around any single strike. A new short-dated expiration on an oil tracker is a tool, and the tool is only as good as the view behind it. Anyone selling a put on USO should be comfortable owning crude exposure at that strike; anyone selling a call should be comfortable missing the upside above it. The premium is the payment for accepting one of those two outcomes.

Frequently asked questions

What does it mean that new October 7 options are available for USO?

An exchange has listed a new expiration date on the United States Oil Fund options chain. Traders can now open puts and calls that settle on October 7, 2026. The series starts with no open interest and builds as buyers and sellers transact, adding a short-dated alternative to the existing monthly and quarterly contracts.

Where was USO trading when the new series opened?

United States Oil Fund was quoted at 146.99 as of 15:14 GMT on September 22, 2026, down 0.79% from a prior close of 148.16. It traded in a band of 145.07 to 147.66 during the session. That level is the reference point against which every strike on the new October 7 chain is priced.

What is a YieldBoost calculation?

It is a way of expressing an option premium as a yield. For a cash-secured put, the premium is measured against the strike price, which represents the cash an investor must set aside. For a covered call, it is measured as extra income on top of a holding. The resulting figure is often annualized for comparison across strikes.

Why are short-dated options popular with premium sellers?

Time value decays fastest in an option's final weeks, so a seller of a two-week contract captures that decay quickly and frees the collateral sooner. The trade-off is that short-dated contracts carry smaller absolute premiums and leave almost no room to recover if the underlying moves sharply against the position before expiry.

What makes options on an oil fund different from options on a stock?

USO tracks crude through futures contracts rather than owning barrels, so its price reflects both the direction of oil and the shape of the futures curve. It is also exposed to sudden supply headlines, which can produce overnight gaps. That raises implied volatility and therefore option premiums, but it also widens the range of outcomes.

How did the broad market trade on the same session?

The S&P 500 tracker SPY was roughly unchanged at $773.30, down 0.03%. The Nasdaq 100 tracker QQQ rose 0.43% to $744.64, while the Dow tracker DIA fell 0.48% to $517.30. USO's 0.79% decline moved independently of the equity indexes, reflecting commodity-specific drivers rather than broad risk appetite.

Sources

• October 7th Options Now Available For United States Oil Fund (USO) — Nasdaq Markets